CHAPTER VII

"To-morrow we Disappear into the Unknown"

I will not bore those whom this narrative may reach by an account of

our luxurious voyage upon the Booth liner, nor will I tell of our

week's stay at Para (save that I should wish to acknowledge the great

kindness of the Pereira da Pinta Company in helping us to get together

our equipment). I will also allude very briefly to our river journey,

up a wide, slow-moving, clay-tinted stream, in a steamer which was

little smaller than that which had carried us across the Atlantic.

Eventually we found ourselves through the narrows of Obidos and reached

the town of Manaos. Here we were rescued from the limited attractions

of the local inn by Mr. Shortman, the representative of the British and

Brazilian Trading Company. In his hospitable Fazenda we spent our time

until the day when we were empowered to open the letter of instructions

given to us by Professor Challenger. Before I reach the surprising

events of that date I would desire to give a clearer sketch of my

comrades in this enterprise, and of the associates whom we had already

gathered together in South America. I speak freely, and I leave the

use of my material to your own discretion, Mr. McArdle, since it is

through your hands that this report must pass before it reaches the

world.

The scientific attainments of Professor Summerlee are too well known

for me to trouble to recapitulate them. He is better equipped for a

rough expedition of this sort than one would imagine at first sight.

His tall, gaunt, stringy figure is insensible to fatigue, and his dry,

half-sarcastic, and often wholly unsympathetic manner is uninfluenced

by any change in his surroundings. Though in his sixty-sixth year, I

have never heard him express any dissatisfaction at the occasional

hardships which we have had to encounter. I had regarded his presence

as an encumbrance to the expedition, but, as a matter of fact, I am now

well convinced that his power of endurance is as great as my own. In

temper he is naturally acid and sceptical. From the beginning he has

never concealed his belief that Professor Challenger is an absolute

fraud, that we are all embarked upon an absurd wild-goose chase and

that we are likely to reap nothing but disappointment and danger in

South America, and corresponding ridicule in England. Such are the

views which, with much passionate distortion of his thin features and

wagging of his thin, goat-like beard, he poured into our ears all the

way from Southampton to Manaos. Since landing from the boat he has

obtained some consolation from the beauty and variety of the insect and

bird life around him, for he is absolutely whole-hearted in his

devotion to science. He spends his days flitting through the woods

with his shot-gun and his butterfly-net, and his evenings in mounting

the many specimens he has acquired. Among his minor peculiarities are

that he is careless as to his attire, unclean in his person,

exceedingly absent-minded in his habits, and addicted to smoking a

short briar pipe, which is seldom out of his mouth. He has been upon

several scientific expeditions in his youth (he was with Robertson in

Papua), and the life of the camp and the canoe is nothing fresh to him.

Lord John Roxton has some points in common with Professor Summerlee,

and others in which they are the very antithesis to each other. He is

twenty years younger, but has something of the same spare, scraggy

physique. As to his appearance, I have, as I recollect, described it

in that portion of my narrative which I have left behind me in London.

He is exceedingly neat and prim in his ways, dresses always with great

care in white drill suits and high brown mosquito-boots, and shaves at

least once a day. Like most men of action, he is laconic in speech,

and sinks readily into his own thoughts, but he is always quick to

answer a question or join in a conversation, talking in a queer, jerky,

half-humorous fashion. His knowledge of the world, and very especially

of South America, is surprising, and he has a whole-hearted belief in

the possibilities of our journey which is not to be dashed by the

sneers of Professor Summerlee. He has a gentle voice and a quiet

manner, but behind his twinkling blue eyes there lurks a capacity for

furious wrath and implacable resolution, the more dangerous because

they are held in leash. He spoke little of his own exploits in Brazil

and Peru, but it was a revelation to me to find the excitement which

was caused by his presence among the riverine natives, who looked upon

him as their champion and protector. The exploits of the Red Chief, as

they called him, had become legends among them, but the real facts, as

far as I could learn them, were amazing enough.

These were that Lord John had found himself some years before in that

no-man's-land which is formed by the half-defined frontiers between

Peru, Brazil, and Columbia. In this great district the wild rubber

tree flourishes, and has become, as in the Congo, a curse to the

natives which can only be compared to their forced labor under the

Spaniards upon the old silver mines of Darien. A handful of villainous

half-breeds dominated the country, armed such Indians as would support

them, and turned the rest into slaves, terrorizing them with the most

inhuman tortures in order to force them to gather the india-rubber,

which was then floated down the river to Para. Lord John Roxton

expostulated on behalf of the wretched victims, and received nothing

but threats and insults for his pains. He then formally declared war

against Pedro Lopez, the leader of the slave-drivers, enrolled a band

of runaway slaves in his service, armed them, and conducted a campaign,

which ended by his killing with his own hands the notorious half-breed

and breaking down the system which he represented.

No wonder that the ginger-headed man with the silky voice and the free

and easy manners was now looked upon with deep interest upon the banks

of the great South American river, though the feelings he inspired were

naturally mixed, since the gratitude of the natives was equaled by the

resentment of those who desired to exploit them. One useful result of

his former experiences was that he could talk fluently in the Lingoa

Geral, which is the peculiar talk, one-third Portuguese and two-thirds

Indian, which is current all over Brazil.

I have said before that Lord John Roxton was a South Americomaniac. He

could not speak of that great country without ardor, and this ardor was

infectious, for, ignorant as I was, he fixed my attention and

stimulated my curiosity. How I wish I could reproduce the glamour of

his discourses, the peculiar mixture of accurate knowledge and of racy

imagination which gave them their fascination, until even the

Professor's cynical and sceptical smile would gradually vanish from his

thin face as he listened. He would tell the history of the mighty

river so rapidly explored (for some of the first conquerors of Peru

actually crossed the entire continent upon its waters), and yet so

unknown in regard to all that lay behind its ever-changing banks.

"What is there?" he would cry, pointing to the north. "Wood and marsh

and unpenetrated jungle. Who knows what it may shelter? And there to

the south? A wilderness of swampy forest, where no white man has ever

been. The unknown is up against us on every side. Outside the narrow

lines of the rivers what does anyone know? Who will say what is

possible in such a country? Why should old man Challenger not be

right?" At which direct defiance the stubborn sneer would reappear

upon Professor Summerlee's face, and he would sit, shaking his sardonic

head in unsympathetic silence, behind the cloud of his briar-root pipe.

So much, for the moment, for my two white companions, whose characters

and limitations will be further exposed, as surely as my own, as this

narrative proceeds. But already we have enrolled certain retainers who

may play no small part in what is to come. The first is a gigantic

negro named Zambo, who is a black Hercules, as willing as any horse,

and about as intelligent. Him we enlisted at Para, on the

recommendation of the steamship company, on whose vessels he had

learned to speak a halting English.

It was at Para also that we engaged Gomez and Manuel, two half-breeds

from up the river, just come down with a cargo of redwood. They were

swarthy fellows, bearded and fierce, as active and wiry as panthers.

Both of them had spent their lives in those upper waters of the Amazon

which we were about to explore, and it was this recommendation which

had caused Lord John to engage them. One of them, Gomez, had the

further advantage that he could speak excellent English. These men

were willing to act as our personal servants, to cook, to row, or to

make themselves useful in any way at a payment of fifteen dollars a

month. Besides these, we had engaged three Mojo Indians from Bolivia,

who are the most skilful at fishing and boat work of all the river

tribes. The chief of these we called Mojo, after his tribe, and the

others are known as Jose and Fernando. Three white men, then, two

half-breeds, one negro, and three Indians made up the personnel of the

little expedition which lay waiting for its instructions at Manaos

before starting upon its singular quest.

At last, after a weary week, the day had come and the hour. I ask you

to picture the shaded sitting-room of the Fazenda St. Ignatio, two

miles inland from the town of Manaos. Outside lay the yellow, brassy

glare of the sunshine, with the shadows of the palm trees as black and

definite as the trees themselves. The air was calm, full of the

eternal hum of insects, a tropical chorus of many octaves, from the

deep drone of the bee to the high, keen pipe of the mosquito. Beyond

the veranda was a small cleared garden, bounded with cactus hedges and

adorned with clumps of flowering shrubs, round which the great blue

butterflies and the tiny humming-birds fluttered and darted in

crescents of sparkling light. Within we were seated round the cane

table, on which lay a sealed envelope. Inscribed upon it, in the

jagged handwriting of Professor Challenger, were the words:--

"Instructions to Lord John Roxton and party. To be opened at Manaos

upon July 15th, at 12 o'clock precisely."

Lord John had placed his watch upon the table beside him.

"We have seven more minutes," said he. "The old dear is very precise."

Professor Summerlee gave an acid smile as he picked up the envelope in

his gaunt hand.

"What can it possibly matter whether we open it now or in seven

minutes?" said he. "It is all part and parcel of the same system of

quackery and nonsense, for which I regret to say that the writer is

notorious."

"Oh, come, we must play the game accordin' to rules," said Lord John.

"It's old man Challenger's show and we are here by his good will, so it

would be rotten bad form if we didn't follow his instructions to the

letter."

"A pretty business it is!" cried the Professor, bitterly. "It struck

me as preposterous in London, but I'm bound to say that it seems even

more so upon closer acquaintance. I don't know what is inside this

envelope, but, unless it is something pretty definite, I shall be much

tempted to take the next down-river boat and catch the Bolivia at Para.

After all, I have some more responsible work in the world than to run

about disproving the assertions of a lunatic. Now, Roxton, surely it

is time."

"Time it is," said Lord John. "You can blow the whistle." He took up

the envelope and cut it with his penknife. From it he drew a folded

sheet of paper. This he carefully opened out and flattened on the

table. It was a blank sheet. He turned it over. Again it was blank.

We looked at each other in a bewildered silence, which was broken by a

discordant burst of derisive laughter from Professor Summerlee.

"It is an open admission," he cried. "What more do you want? The

fellow is a self-confessed humbug. We have only to return home and

report him as the brazen imposter that he is."

"Invisible ink!" I suggested.

"I don't think!" said Lord Roxton, holding the paper to the light.

"No, young fellah my lad, there is no use deceiving yourself. I'll go

bail for it that nothing has ever been written upon this paper."

"May I come in?" boomed a voice from the veranda.

The shadow of a squat figure had stolen across the patch of sunlight.

That voice! That monstrous breadth of shoulder! We sprang to our feet

with a gasp of astonishment as Challenger, in a round, boyish straw-hat

with a colored ribbon--Challenger, with his hands in his jacket-pockets

and his canvas shoes daintily pointing as he walked--appeared in the

open space before us. He threw back his head, and there he stood in

the golden glow with all his old Assyrian luxuriance of beard, all his

native insolence of drooping eyelids and intolerant eyes.

"I fear," said he, taking out his watch, "that I am a few minutes too

late. When I gave you this envelope I must confess that I had never

intended that you should open it, for it had been my fixed intention to

be with you before the hour. The unfortunate delay can be apportioned

between a blundering pilot and an intrusive sandbank. I fear that it

has given my colleague, Professor Summerlee, occasion to blaspheme."

"I am bound to say, sir," said Lord John, with some sternness of voice,

"that your turning up is a considerable relief to us, for our mission

seemed to have come to a premature end. Even now I can't for the life

of me understand why you should have worked it in so extraordinary a

manner."

Instead of answering, Professor Challenger entered, shook hands with

myself and Lord John, bowed with ponderous insolence to Professor

Summerlee, and sank back into a basket-chair, which creaked and swayed

beneath his weight.

"Is all ready for your journey?" he asked.

"We can start to-morrow."

"Then so you shall. You need no chart of directions now, since you

will have the inestimable advantage of my own guidance. From the first

I had determined that I would myself preside over your investigation.

The most elaborate charts would, as you will readily admit, be a poor

substitute for my own intelligence and advice. As to the small ruse

which I played upon you in the matter of the envelope, it is clear

that, had I told you all my intentions, I should have been forced to

resist unwelcome pressure to travel out with you."

"Not from me, sir!" exclaimed Professor Summerlee, heartily. "So long

as there was another ship upon the Atlantic."

Challenger waved him away with his great hairy hand.

"Your common sense will, I am sure, sustain my objection and realize

that it was better that I should direct my own movements and appear

only at the exact moment when my presence was needed. That moment has

now arrived. You are in safe hands. You will not now fail to reach

your destination. From henceforth I take command of this expedition,

and I must ask you to complete your preparations to-night, so that we

may be able to make an early start in the morning. My time is of

value, and the same thing may be said, no doubt, in a lesser degree of

your own. I propose, therefore, that we push on as rapidly as

possible, until I have demonstrated what you have come to see."

Lord John Roxton has chartered a large steam launch, the Esmeralda,

which was to carry us up the river. So far as climate goes, it was

immaterial what time we chose for our expedition, as the temperature

ranges from seventy-five to ninety degrees both summer and winter, with

no appreciable difference in heat. In moisture, however, it is

otherwise; from December to May is the period of the rains, and during

this time the river slowly rises until it attains a height of nearly

forty feet above its low-water mark. It floods the banks, extends in

great lagoons over a monstrous waste of country, and forms a huge

district, called locally the Gapo, which is for the most part too

marshy for foot-travel and too shallow for boating. About June the

waters begin to fall, and are at their lowest at October or November.

Thus our expedition was at the time of the dry season, when the great

river and its tributaries were more or less in a normal condition.

The current of the river is a slight one, the drop being not greater

than eight inches in a mile. No stream could be more convenient for

navigation, since the prevailing wind is south-east, and sailing boats

may make a continuous progress to the Peruvian frontier, dropping down

again with the current. In our own case the excellent engines of the

Esmeralda could disregard the sluggish flow of the stream, and we made

as rapid progress as if we were navigating a stagnant lake. For three

days we steamed north-westwards up a stream which even here, a thousand

miles from its mouth, was still so enormous that from its center the

two banks were mere shadows upon the distant skyline. On the fourth

day after leaving Manaos we turned into a tributary which at its mouth

was little smaller than the main stream. It narrowed rapidly, however,

and after two more days' steaming we reached an Indian village, where

the Professor insisted that we should land, and that the Esmeralda

should be sent back to Manaos. We should soon come upon rapids, he

explained, which would make its further use impossible. He added

privately that we were now approaching the door of the unknown country,

and that the fewer whom we took into our confidence the better it would

be. To this end also he made each of us give our word of honor that we

would publish or say nothing which would give any exact clue as to the

whereabouts of our travels, while the servants were all solemnly sworn

to the same effect. It is for this reason that I am compelled to be

vague in my narrative, and I would warn my readers that in any map or

diagram which I may give the relation of places to each other may be

correct, but the points of the compass are carefully confused, so that

in no way can it be taken as an actual guide to the country. Professor

Challenger's reasons for secrecy may be valid or not, but we had no

choice but to adopt them, for he was prepared to abandon the whole

expedition rather than modify the conditions upon which he would guide

us.

It was August 2nd when we snapped our last link with the outer world by

bidding farewell to the Esmeralda. Since then four days have passed,

during which we have engaged two large canoes from the Indians, made of

so light a material (skins over a bamboo framework) that we should be

able to carry them round any obstacle. These we have loaded with all

our effects, and have engaged two additional Indians to help us in the

navigation. I understand that they are the very two--Ataca and Ipetu

by name--who accompanied Professor Challenger upon his previous

journey. They appeared to be terrified at the prospect of repeating

it, but the chief has patriarchal powers in these countries, and if the

bargain is good in his eyes the clansman has little choice in the

matter.

So to-morrow we disappear into the unknown. This account I am

transmitting down the river by canoe, and it may be our last word to

those who are interested in our fate. I have, according to our

arrangement, addressed it to you, my dear Mr. McArdle, and I leave it

to your discretion to delete, alter, or do what you like with it. From

the assurance of Professor Challenger's manner--and in spite of the

continued scepticism of Professor Summerlee--I have no doubt that our

leader will make good his statement, and that we are really on the eve

of some most remarkable experiences.